I don't think Google wants to replace the high end. They are taking a page from Apple's book and offering more expensive versions with larger capacity. The profound difference is that Google is letting its partners cover that part of the market while they supply the cheaper lower capacity devices.

Google deals with the razor thin margins while the HTCs of the world get chubby Apple-esque margins. Everyone wins. Reply

I think the common stereotype is that Asian-centric smartphones are typically tougher than the stuff we get. And since LG has a decent presence in Asian markets (and basically no market share in the west), we might expect their stuff to be at least as sturdy as the competition if not a little tougher. And if Google vouches for it, I wouldn't worry. Reply

"Is the build quality of LG as good as ASUS? Not that LG will do the actual fabrication."

It is manufactured by LG and it's partners. Their quality seems good, however their software support is terrible. Since Google taking care of the software support side of things, this is a decent phone if you're fine with no LTE.

That being said, I wouldn't buy any other LG Android phone... far too risky. The LG Spectrum got ICS a week or so ago... and it launched AFTER ICS. Reply

The sizes are fine. If you want a smartphone for daily use and usual stuff, you'll buy the 8GB version. It's enough for apps, documents, pictures and normal sized music collection.For more music most people use a streaming client. For more data most people use GDrive, Dropbox, etc. For movies you use streaming.If you have a large offline music collection and want to watch some movies on the go, then you can buy the 16GB version.

I have an Android Smartphone with 16GB and it's plenty for music, apps, pictures, backup. 8GB is a bit harsh, but most people won't even use 8GB.

32GB on a smartphone would be cool, but right now and especially with great cloud solutions not really a necessity.

And btw.: If you don't like what Google gives you, you're free to buy the 'original' LG version with LTE and SD-Card, but well, you won't get it for $350, but the iPhone 5 you bought was also twice as expensive as the Nexus 4, so your complaining is BS.Reply

agreed. one of the reasons i stick with samsung phones. a fair few of the others aren't giving you the option of more storage.

the cloud isn't an option - i mean who the hell wants to watch a streaming movie via 3/4G and use up their monthly allowance of data in one go? let alone losing connection through a tunnel or something.

to me the cloud is somewhere to backup photos/videos you've taken with your phone - TB backups too. it is not a streaming service replacement for a 64GB mSD card in your phoneReply

I agree, sort of, although I would have liked to see it launch with 16GB as the low-end option rather than 8GB - 8GB seems a little small if you want any kind of media on your phone in addition to apps and data. I suppose the $350 pricing for 16GB is the same as the Galaxy Nexus though so it's kind of a wash, except flash has certainly gotten cheaper over the last year. 16/32GB as options would have been much nicer, and if there was a 64GB it would have been my next phone without question.

As it is, just have to use USB OTG as a kludge for media storage.Reply

Google play stores your Music and Video in the cloud. It is always accessible! If you could store your 100 gig multimedia collection on your cell phone would you really want to? With Google and others including Apple, if you have Internet access you have access to your contacts, music, and video. The difference being, Apple has a annual fee for ITunes Match!Reply

'Always accessible'? Cool, I didn't know cellular radio technology had been perfected and that coverage was literally omnipresent. I also didn't know that wireless providers had lifted data caps. Thanks!Reply

I was going to say, those HD-mkvs of television series run at around 1-2GB each - getting those delivered via the air-interface sounds liek a recipe for disaster - and a monthly cap blown in 60 minutes.Reply

What do you put on your phone that requires more than 16gb of storage? I'm assuming you're talking about a lot of audio and video.

Some people don't have that many songs, or would prefer to stream off the internet anyway. So 16gb is easily viable for some. I haven't come close to using up all of my media storage capacity on any phone or tablet that I've owned.Reply

All Nexus devices - Nexus 4, 7 and 10 are amazing value at $299, $199 and $399, respectively. As Jason writes, and especially for Nexus 4 and 10 in their respective categories, we now have top of the line hardware at bargain price points. Nothing short of amazing I would say.

At these price points it is also ridiculous to complain about limited storage. If you are not prepared to do some regular house cleaning, then consider waiting for an expandable, non-Nexus variant branded by the manufacturer instead (and pay hundreds of dollar more). I would say it is a great strategy by Google to offer this level of hardware at these prices, yet limit them enough (no storage expansion most notably) to not kill the high end market for their partners.

If Nexus 4 and 10 were currently available in my country (Sweden), I'd place the order right away, despite already having both a smartphone and a table with recent hardware.Reply

No one would argue about storage if there was an SD slot. I know Google is against SD slot for both technical and business reasons and that's why they had LG take it out of this version of the phone, it's just not the most user-friendly way to go. I can understand why LTE is out due to cost, but SD slots can't be THAT much.Reply

LTE is not out because of cost, it is out because of control.Google wants to control the software and release cycle and offers the phone as unlocked and free of contract. There is no such thing as an unlocked LTE phone and no US carrier is interested in relaxing their control on the phones getting on their LTE network.

So, until you can use an unlocked phone on LTE, there will be no Nexus with LTE as it conflicts with the stated goal of the nexus: google control of software releases.

That being said, HSPA+ is already quite fast and ATT already re-branded it as 4G on the iPhone4S for example. The nexus 4 will support that.Reply

The Verizon Galaxy Nexus was initially delayed for MONTHS because Verizon wanted to launch a Droid phone. Then Verizon wouldn't allow Google Wallet on the device. Then Verizon loaded some of their crapware on the device. Then Verizon took months and months to push updates to the device.

The Verizon phone was never a Nexus phone. It might have had the name Nexus, but it flew in the face of everything the Nexus stands for.Reply

Tech companies just seem to suck at naming their devices. We have Apple naming their 6th iPhone the iPhone 5. Both nVidia and AMD use the 2nd digit to compare performance, so we have very intuitive logic like 6450 < 5870. Let's not even get started on renaming (there's 4 versions of the GT 640?!). There's also the mystery of why Intel calls Ivy Bridge "3rd generation" for consumers, and "v2" for servers...Reply

Also, for people defending the lack of storage because of the low price...give me a break. How much would it cost to add an SD slot? Very little. The lack of storage is a deliberate means of control (forces you to use Google cloud services), not cost savings.Reply

Google isn't trying to force you to do anything. You can have a top-of-the-line Android phone with the specs you want from Samsung, HTC, LG, Motorola, Huawei, etc. It's not like 1 version of an Android phone is released each year and the end-user is stuck with whatever Google decides for that model. That's the way the "other" guy operates.Reply

Unfortunately, this is an otherwise top-spec phone with an unlocked bootloader. I can't get that on Verizon. Google should play hardball with Verizon and offer an unlocked model with LTE/CDMA radios as well. I don't care if it costs $600-$650.Reply

The lack of LTE is what really bothers me. It definitely seems like a much larger step backwards. New Nexus has slower wireless connectivity than old Nexus? It boggles the mind. I mean, what does an MDM9615 cost?

The lack of SD card doesn't bother me. I haven't once pulled the SD card from my phone in the 18 months I've had it. It did, however, have a 32 GB SD card. To that end, 16/32 seems like good capacity points, considering the difference in flash costs is something like $10. I see no reason to have a phone with no expandable storage and only 8 GB on-board.

Adding an SD card is always a little complicated, so I'm not surprised to see it missing. If you take a picture, where is it stored? How do you explain to the user that they've run out of space, but there is still free space?Reply

Carriers have an agenda, and for the last decade, all of the agency in the US. When Google announced that they would be selling the original Nexus through their own channel (unlocked and unfettered) it was a shot across the bow of the US carrier market. This is the next shot. If the Nexus 4 sells with the alacrity of the Nexus 7, then that will demonstrate to the carriers that buyers are interested in performance and software updates, and unwilling to put up with bloated, antiquated software just for the latest air interface.

By pricing these so cheaply, by dragging the unlocked price down as low as it'd go, they are applying pressures that could hopefully push the carriers to give Android the same regard as iOS devices. Reply

No LTE: To keep costs low. Using LTE requires several patents, and thus increases the price. The APQ8064 also doesn't contain LTE, so additional chips are required. You can add this, but not for $300.

SD-card: It's a Nexus phone and Google doesn't add SD-Cards, it's their philosophy. Get it. Google wants you to use the cloud and offers you many options to do so, and if you can't live with this, don't think about buying a Nexus device.

I also don't see how 16GB is not enough. If 16GB isn't enough, how can 32GB or 64GB?If 16GB isn't enough, then you don't just store music or pictures on it, but movies. For HD movies, 32GB is ridicoulus with min. 4GB/Movie, just as 64GB.Reply

not to mention there are emulators (playstation 1) requiring CD ISOs to play, and other space hungry software (GPS,...). I have a 16GB Nexus device, and it's always almost full up. 32GB is not so large for some users.Reply

Cost is probably only a part of the answer. Individual components, radios inclusive, are relatively cheap. LTE involves something more than just cost, though. Unlike GSM/HSPA standards, and unlike the intentions of the bodies that govern radio interface standards, there's no way in the US to simply slip in an SD card and have an unlocked LTE device running. And what do the carriers want in exchange for their cooperation? A lot. They want to pick out the software package, they want to drape their logos all over the devices and they want to be the customers, not us. By deciding what our selection is they can exert greater control both in pricing and the character of the devices available.

Today's announcement is a statement to the carriers that we are the customers, and they are the providers. Reply

"On the front of the device you find a 2560x1600 10" display, making it the highest resolution Android tablet to date."

Why say highest resolution Android tablet? This is highest resolution tablet, period, correct? If this was an Apple blurb, I'm sure comparisons would have been made to the "inferior" competition. Also, no comment on how this pricing blows the iPad out of the water?Reply

This is the highest-end ARM tablet out. T604 might not beat whatever is in the A6X but two A15s beat whatever Apple's CPU architecture is on the A6. Meanwhile, the screen is second-to-none for tablets, or really for any system under $1000.Reply

If there's one thing we try to do above any other, it's not saying anything that we haven't tested for ourselves. Are the A15's faster than Swift? Maybe, we'll find out soon enough. Is this the best 10" screen ever? Maybe, we'll find out. That's what we offer you all, and I hope you'll understand.Reply

Anandtech, where are the articles regarding the Droid HD Razrs? The new Nexus 4? The new Nexus 7 and 10? Your site contains preview and rumor articles for Apple and even Microsoft all of the time, yet I don't recall seeing even a single article talking about these products.Reply

I'm actually working on the RAZR reviews while we speak. As far as the rumors of the Nexus 4, etc, we report what we know and what isn't embargoed. Our articles ahead of the recent iPhone announcement were a bit of a departure for us. Generally, if we make conjectures about future products we do so within reviews or articles discussing current products. Further, unlike other sites, we don't make these conjectures to spread rumors, we do it to establish the context of a device. If a new devices is about to be superseded by another much more competitive product then it's worth discussing.

I've invited everyone to feel free to contact me directly about any of your concerns regarding bias in any of my posts, you can find me e-mail address on the byline. Cheers.

If I can defend myself, I couldn't recall what the resolution of the new iPad was while I was writing this post. And I didn't have time to look it up, as I was drawn to wrap up the piece before heading to the basement and fixing my sump pump so my house wouldn't flood. If you're concerned about my bias you're welcome to send me an e-mail on the matter whenever you detect it. I invite you to do so. Reply

That's insane pricing - basically half the price of the competition's flagships, with the same powerful hardware (or more powerful, like compared to WP8 phones).

I have a request when - when you review the Nexus 10 and even the Nexus 4, please use whatever browser has the better Javascript performance, not just Chrome, so we can get a better sense of what the hardware can actually do, and not be hindered by the software.

For example, I've seen Exynos 5 Dual get 668 ms in Sunspider on the Chromebook, and "only" 1300 ms in a production unit of Nexus 10, and if that remains true in the final unit, then something is definitely wrong in the Chrome software. I think Chrome for Android is still a few versions behind the desktop Chrome, which means the V8 engine is, too. It also got twice the score for V8 and Octane compared to the Apple A6 chip in iPhone 5.

At least try to pinpoint why the same chip gets so much better scores in ChromeOS, but only mediocre ones in Chrome for Android (that is if it will still be case when you review it).Reply

I feel on the contrary they should use whatever software comes pre-installed on the phone, since their aim is to present the picture of what customers are buying not how great it is once you've tinkered with it for hours to optimised the device.

I think its OK to test with the latest OS, as long as it's a standard update some computer illiterate grandma would be able to do, everything else is a wrong representation (unless you add to the cost the rates of the time spent optimising).

The benchmarking discrepancies are probably due to Apple and Google optimising their respective browser to the test sets.Reply

I disagree; Android is optimized in the sense that it allows other rendering engines.

Some computer-illiterate grandma won't buy any of these without guidance; thirty seconds of guidance with the out-of-the-box configuration is reasonable in that scenario. If the purchaser is looking at benchmarks, they can download an app.Reply

What "computer-illiterate grandma" is going to reading Anandtech? What "computer-illiterate grandma" is buying a phone based on its javascript performance, Lol? Bench the phone it right out of the box, apples to apples. Reply

There's a few things that we try to take into consideration when we look at benchmarks. Consistency is paramount. If we can't repeat the test and get the same (roughly) results then there's no point using it. There's also the matter of equity, if today a tablet was released that ran Honeycomb 3.0, we might not bother reviewing it, and if we did we'd smother the review with coaching statements like "we could easily expect better performance with updated software."

Today, there's Chrome and Browser. One has received it's end-of-life status. The other is the future and will be the only browser available on Android devices in the future. Are their cases where the original Android browser is the better performer? Maybe. Surely. But what would the point be of testing hardware with Browser when Chrome is the future.

This is something to look further into, though. Perhaps we'll consider a feature on the two. Reply

Should be 72 Gflops for Mali T604 to 64 Glops for A6X GPU. But we'll see the GLbenchmarks soon enough.

Mali T604 will also support OpenGL ES 3.0 standard (compared to the 4 year old OpenGL ES 2.0 that A6X still supports). Not sure why it doesn't support it right out of the gate though, but it should with a driver update. Or maybe ARM just couldn't get the Khronos certification in time for launch and they can't officially say they support all the features yet.Reply

When the 8GB storage rumors became obvious, my reaction was "the only way that would really make sense is if they were going for a low price - maybe $300". And looks like I was right. It's still too low for me to personally consider it, but for people like my parents, the 8GB model would be a great choice. The 16GB model though will be one that I consider against the iPhone 5, One X+, and Lumia 920 once the Nokia is available. I'd prefer a 32GB model (for $399?), but oh well.

Oh, and a minor bit of editing nitpick: "peaks our interest" is wrong - the proper word is "piques". :-)Reply

The prices are just insane. As soon as the Nexus 4 goes on sale it will just kill sales for all other high-end Android Smartphones (and probably others too) which cost almost twice as much. There's no way others can meet this while still making profits. The market is dead, Google killed it.

As a strategy this is interesting, but Google right now is going around and nuking the competition (and even its partners) left and right. It's almost like some business partners having a meeting and one pulling out a gun and just killing everyone else to make a point. Violence certainly works, but has a habit to disrupt things in a big way.Reply

I doubt it will kill the competition. Us nerds will buy it but the masses will still go to Walmart, Target, Best Buy or their carriers store (where this phone will not be on display) and buy whatever's the hot phone of the moment. Unless Google does a major ad campaign for this phone Samsung, HTC and LG have nothing to fear from Nexus 4.Reply

Exactly. People are used to paying an arm and a leg for a decent smartphone and then pay just a handful of bucks for services every month. Cutting the upfront price in half leaves all other phones out in the cold. $560 for a SGS3 or $299 for a Nexus 4 won't leave many sales for Samsung, believe me.Reply

For Google, Nexus is a flagship brand that represents the best of Android, with Google leading by example to show other hardware manufacturers what Android can be. And though partners build the hardware, Google wants direct control of the software on Nexus devices with no carrier intervention. That alone means Google can't sell an LTE device, as there's simply no access to LTE networks without working with carriers in one way or another: Verizon and Sprint's LTE networks still require compatibility with their 3G CDMA systems, and there's essentially no such thing as an unlocked CDMA device. AT&T's fledgling LTE network runs on different frequencies than other LTE networks around the world, so Google would have to build a custom phone for just 77 markets in the US. Doing that without AT&T's financial assistance makes little sense.